


Our Bonds Broken (?)

by Anonymous



Series: S-Anon MCYT Dump [3]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: AU idea I had in my head, Angst with a Happy Ending, BadBoyHalo is an idiot, Comfort only at the end, Dream Smp, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Oops I slipped it's angst, Post Red Egg, Puffy tries, Skeppy's feeling betrayed and left behind, Written about their MC characters not real life persons, Written platonic but probably has romantic feeling tones later, basically if you wanna read it romantically go ahead, more characters to be added when they appear, multi-chapter, no real names because no
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28802802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: It was barely noticeable at first- well, it really depended on who you were talking to. Talking to anyone else on the SMP, they would have told you that it wasn’t noticeable at all. But Skeppy was smart, and he knew when something wasn’t right. How could he not? Bad was his best friend, after all. It would’ve been heresy on his part if he didn’t pay attention to every little change the Nether demon expressed, even if he tried to hide it. Bad could never fully hide anything from Skeppy.Which is why this whole situation made his stomach turn, because he really didn’t know why Bad was being so distant with him now.
Relationships: Zak Ahmed & CaptainPuffy, Zak Ahmed & Darryl Noveschosch, Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Series: S-Anon MCYT Dump [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2147232
Comments: 20
Kudos: 121
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Darklight

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Welcome to pain. This is probably badly written, and it might feel rushed, but yknow oh well. I've had this angst idea in my head for a few days and I went "sure I'll write it"
> 
> Something to know is that this is after the red egg is destroyed- something that hasn't happened yet on the DSMP. Like I said, this is sort of an AU idea I guess because it's in a future that hasn't happened. yeh.
> 
> ALSO I WILL BE PROVIDING A LINK TO A SONG FOR EVERY CHAPTER. This might give away who I am because I do this on my public fics, but I always give a song counterpart to match the chapter. It helps to immerse you more. It really brings the emotion to life, I feel.  
> SONG: Darklight part 1 (Superliminal OST- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1YwTGNH_yg)

It was barely noticeable at first- well, it really depended on who you were talking to. Talking to anyone else on the SMP, they would have told you that it wasn’t noticeable at all. But Skeppy was smart, and he knew when something wasn’t right. How could he not? Bad was his best friend, after all. It would’ve been heresy on his part if he didn’t pay attention to every little change the Nether demon expressed, even if he tried to hide it. Bad could never fully hide anything from Skeppy.

Which is why this whole situation made his stomach turn, because he really didn’t know why Bad was being so distant with him now.

The SMP was at peace for now- if you could call the constant chaos of its members ‘peaceful’. Skeppy more meant it in the idea that they’d finally destroyed the Red Egg, and its reign of terror was finally gone. They’d succeeded in this task a few weeks ago now, and despite the victory and relief of it all, no one really wanted to talk about it. Things had happened, bad things, because of that egg, and the victory hadn’t been easy in the slightest. Friends had become enemies in the final battle- not of their own will, but the thought still shook him. Having to fight against Bad to buy Puffy, Ant, and the others time was more than jarring. Skeppy never wanted to see his familiar hoodie in shades of black and white again.

Skeppy mainly took to blocking out the memories of fighting against his best friend now. Choice words were thrown with fiery venom, words that had left scars of doubt in his mind, despite trying so hard to not take them to heart. Bad hadn’t been in control, so the words he’d said had no real merit, but Skeppy had no excuse for some of the things he said. He knew this. During the wind-down after the victory and the fighting, behind their closed doors Skeppy had spit a stream of almost never-ending apologies to the recovering demon as he had desperately tried to calm the diamond boy down.

Neither of them had slept very well that following night- plagued with nightmares, ghost touches of enemy weapons coming too close for comfort, visions of familiars eyes full of anger and a sense of betrayal. Skeppy wasn’t sure who went to who first that night anymore, but the two of them had ended up in the same bed to try and sleep away the last few hours of the night. Despite the comfort of being next to each other, there were unspoken guilts that kept them from deriving the true comfort enough to sleep soundly.

When the morning came, they hadn’t spoken about it. Bad had simply gotten up first, his opaque white eyes lingering on Skeppy’s tired form for a moment longer, before he left the room with a swish of his tail. Skeppy hadn’t said anything about how the simple motion had seemed so sad.

They still haven’t talked about it, weeks later.

It was starting to drive Skeppy insane, in more than one way. This was one of the things he couldn’t stand about his friend- that lately, Bad was so keen on never telling him the full truth about things anymore. He didn’t understand why he would suddenly decide to do this- they were supposed to tell each other everything. Did Bad just not trust him as much as he used to anymore? Was it a personal failure on Skeppy’s end? He’d mentioned this to Bad before, multiple times, but all he would get in return was a very obvious attempt to change the subject. What happened between them that they couldn’t just  _ talk  _ anymore? All of this coming together to form a giant pit in his stomach was making it even worse. Skeppy was never one to be so outward with his terrifying insecurities, so he kept this all to himself. He couldn’t even talk to Bad about it to release some of the mental pressure either, because it was about him, and there was a sinister little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him negative things.

_ Why should you be open and honest with Bad when he can’t do the same for you? Treat others how you want to be treated, isn’t that a golden rule? Why should you give 110% when he’s only giving you 90%? _

Skeppy doesn’t think he’s ever felt more miserable than he does now.

Puffy and Ant have noticed. They’ve noticed his slower pace, the duller tone in his voice, the overall gloom that radiated from him whenever he was out. If he were to take off his head box around them, they’d see the watery sheen in his eyes that was commonly present now. Skeppy didn’t want them to see the full extent of his inner turmoil.

And where was Bad in all of this?

Hell if Skeppy knew. He barely saw Bad around the SMP anymore at all. Probably with Quackity, since the two had gotten so close these days. But other than that, he had no idea where the demon was or what he was doing. It rubbed him the wrong way, because while he definitely didn’t need to know where Bad was at all times, it felt like they were barely even acquaintances now with how little Skeppy knew about Bad and his days.It hadn’t been this extreme to start, the distance between them had just grown bigger and bigger each day. For the first few days, after that night the two of them shared, Bad had been distant but not like this. Skeppy had chalked it up to time that they both needed to sort out their thoughts after fighting the first time. He’d given Bad his space, fully believing that it was what he needed, and that they would be okay soon. But he was wrong.

Every attempt Skeppy had made after those first few days to bring himself back into Bad’s little bubble had been blown off and ignored. The hellos, the good mornings, the ‘hey do you wanna hang out later?’s, everything had been met with only a few words of acknowledgement or complete disregard. Each one had hurt more than the last, until Skeppy had completely given up on trying to start any real conversations. A conservation effort on his part to save himself the pain.

They still lived together in their quartz mansion, however. Meaning no matter how hard Bad tried to avoid him completely, they still had encounters where they had to at least exchange a few words. Those exchanges made Skeppy sick to his stomach. They were acting like their friendship had already come and gone, and he  _ still. didn’t. know. why. _

“Skeppy? Are you even listening to me?” Puffy’s irritated yet patient voice tore through his thoughts, bringing him back to reality.

Skeppy blinked. “Oh. Sorry Puffy.”

Puffy sighed, sitting back in the chair. “Alright, this is getting ridiculous. You and Bad are acting like you hate each other now, and none of us on the SMP have any idea what happened to you two! It may not be our personal business, but we can all feel the depressed atmosphere everywhere at this point. Either you guys talk and make up, or I’m going to go pester Bad myself and make him talk, since you won’t tell me anything!”

“You think I want this?” Skeppy asked in scorned disbelief, voice going up in volume. “Do you  _ THINK  _ that I want to be walking on eggshells in my own house whenever Bad’s home and he still won’t speak a word to me?! Do you think I want to be miserable to the point that I can’t even pay attention to what my other friends are saying to me when I’m right next to them?! I don’t  _ want  _ this Puffy! I want to talk to him so much but he won’t even give me the chance to speak and I don’t know why!”

Puffy’s expression changed at his last exclamation. “Wait… did you guys not have a fight? You don’t know why he’s stopped talking to you?”

“Of course I don’t!” Skeppy hollered in frustration, feeling hot tears pooling at the bottoms of his eyes. He thanked whatever god was out there that he’d left his head box on for this. “He never tells me the truth about things anymore! He never tells me things anymore period! I feel like a complete stranger when I’m around him and it hurts! And I can’t do anything about it because the moment I try to approach him with the intent to talk he bolts off, flying away with his stupid trident, or making excuses and running off! That damn nether demon’s been acting like I killed his dog or something ever since we destroyed that stupid egg. Maybe he really did choose the egg of his own volition, chose the egg over me, and now that it’s gone he’s mad that we took away the  _ real  _ thing that made him happy. It was never me, was it?”

Skeppy stopped suddenly, frozen as the reality of what he said properly sunk in. The pooling tears were running hot and fast now. The shocked look Puffy was giving him wasn’t helping either. The white walls of the quartz mansion were stiff and ugly, a color that couldn’t stop reminding him of Bad’s controlled form- maybe not so controlled after all.

“Skeppy…”

He felt gentle hands taking his head box off, and suddenly he was looking at Puffy properly, without a barrier between his eyes and the person. She was sympathetic, concerned for him. It just made it sting even more.

“It was never me, was it Puffy?” Skeppy repeated miserably, voice wavering. “We have no idea how long that egg had even been around until we destroyed it. For all I know, the moment we came to this place, I was out of the picture.”

“That’s not true Skeppy.” Puffy attempted firmly. “The egg was buried for most of the time, and none of us had any real thoughts about protecting something we didn’t even know was there. You mean everything to Bad, everyone could see that clearly.”

“How could I mean anything to him when he’s thrown me away so easily?” Skeppy asked, refusing to listen. “It’s like I never meant anything to him at all! Two years! Two years and all of these false promises that we were best friends, Puffy, and it’s all gone now because we killed his stupid, precious egg! You can keep lying to yourself, but I know where his loyalties really lay. And it wasn’t to me.”

Silence swept the house, save for the frustrated panting coming from Skeppy after his outburst. He knew he’d come to regret pouring his feelings out so roughly and coldly to Puffy later, and he’d end up apologizing, but for now he just wanted to focus on being able to see again. The tears in his eyes were blurring his vision, and since Puffy had gone silent he assumed he’d have to read her response through her expression.

He wasn’t expecting, once he’d rubbed his eyes clear, to see her not staring at him, but staring past him.

He whirled around immediately, only to see the Nether demon he’d been yelling about seconds earlier standing at the doorway with a shocked expression. Immediately, that fact set off a new wave of anger in his gut- Bad had the gall to look like a deer caught in the headlights, after all of this was  _ HIS  _ fault?

“I…” Bad stuttered quietly. “I chose you, Skeppy. Even if you can’t see that.”

The nerve-

“No. No you didn’t.” Skeppy snapped coldly. “You didn’t choose me then, you didn’t choose me now. You never chose me.”

Bad flinched back at the venom in Skeppy’s tone, his eyes falling shut as he trembled, turned tail, and ran from the house again. The moment the Nether demon was gone, something in Skeppy snapped as he shouted violently, grabbing and throwing any of the limited furniture the house had. Puffy didn’t even try to step in and stop him as he trashed the main area of the ground floor, before he made a mad dash up the stairs to his room. Puffy followed him hesitantly, unsure of if she should say anything as Skeppy rapidly grabbed his things and packed.

“I’m done.” Skeppy spat out. “I’m fucking done. There’s no reason for me to be here anymore.”

“Whoa, whoa! Skeppy you can’t just leave! You belong here like the rest of us!” Puffy protested.

“No I don’t!” Skeppy snapped, turning to look at her with a dark expression in his eyes. “When I came here, it was because Bad was here too. Maybe I did end up making some friends on my own, but that doesn’t change the fact that I did it for Bad. Now Bad’s found better people, better than me, and I have enough dignity left in me to know that I’m not needed here anymore. He can lie all he wants, saying that he chose me despite literally throwing me away, because he can’t tell me the truth about things anymore, but I still know him well enough to read what he can’t say. And it’s that we aren’t friends anymore!”

Puffy visibly sagged. “Skeppy… Please don’t leave.”

Skeppy stopped for a moment, sighing. “Listen, Puffy. You’re my friend, no matter what I might say, but you and I could never have what Bad and I had. I can’t stay because you’ve asked me to. Please understand how much it hurts me to stick around here, when my best fri- when Bad’s still here. I can’t do that.”

Puffy sighed, nodding slowly. “No, no I get it. I’m sorry. I really thought that you two could make up, with whatever happened, but the way Bad just ran off like that, even after hearing everything. All he said to you was a few sentences… he didn’t even try to talk. I don’t know what made him change like this, I always thought you two were inseparable…”

Skeppy slammed his case shut, having packed everything he wanted to. He took a deep breath, trying to stave off more tears that threatened to fall. “Yeah, me too.”

“Could I… ask where you plan to head? Maybe I could come with you, or at least visit sometime. I wouldn’t ask you to come back here.” Puffy dared to venture.

Skeppy sighed. “As long as word about where I’m going doesn’t get out anywhere else, fine. I’m going back home, Puffy. Back to Invaded. My friends Spifey, Zelk, Mega, Finn, Vurb, and some others live there since they were never invited by Dream to come here. It’s far. Far from here, and the farther away I am from here the better.”

Puffy nodded. “I won’t say anything. I promise.”

Skeppy and Puffy both descended back down the stairs, exiting the house as Skeppy began to walk in the direction that would lead out of the SMP territory and start the long journey back to his friends. But before he got too far, he heard a final call from Puffy.

“Skeppy!”

He turned, giving her an unreadable look.

She puffed out a breath, closing her eyes as a single tear pooled at the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Puffy.” Skeppy said, giving an empty chuckle. The hollow sound sent shivers down the captain’s spine. “It was just never meant to be.”

And with that, he walked away. Nothing else was said, as he went farther and farther, until the land around him was less familiar. He could make it out of the SMP territory before night fell if he was fast enough- despite feeling so tired mentally and physically, he was keen to move. He didn’t want anyone else finding him out here with a case of things. Anyone would be able to tell that he was leaving, and he didn’t want to make a big fuss. He wanted to be far away before anyone else realized he was gone.

_ I wish that stupid egg had never been found.  _ Skeppy thought to himself sadly, clenching his teeth as he walked.  _ If that egg hadn’t been uncovered, maybe I would’ve still been living the lie of being Bad’s best friend. But at least then I wouldn’t have known any better. I still would’ve been happy. _

Skeppy didn’t understand how Bad thought completely cutting him out of his life was ‘choosing him’. If they had really been friends, surely Bad would understand that doing what he was doing was just hurting him? What possible good outcome could have come from any of this? No. Bad must have said that as the final straw. The final straw to break Skeppy, to get him to finally leave. What a coward that demon was, putting him through weeks of hurt to get him to leave on his own instead of just telling him they weren’t friends anymore. He should’ve seen it coming.

But that was the problem- the last thing that bothered him. He hadn’t seen this coming. He hadn’t, because it doesn’t make any sense. The whole avoiding him thing had come out of complete left field. They’d practically been on top of the world together up until Bad had turned white, and now… they were as far apart as they could get. A possible progression, but the thing was there was nothing other than the act of destroying the egg that could have caused it. And if it wasn’t the egg, then what had happened?

It didn’t matter now. Skeppy had done everything he could to try to just talk it out with Bad, but the other party hadn’t been willing. So, that was it. If there was any chance now of fixing this, of talking it out, it would have to come from Bad. But at this point, Skeppy didn’t think it would happen. Bad had his life, and now Skeppy was going to return to his.

_ Bad…  _ Skeppy thought to himself miserably. He felt tears pooling in his eyes again as he watch the sunset in front of him as he walked.

_ I feel so far from you. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I know things seem bad, but I promise this story has a happy ending. Obviously Bad doesn't hate Skeppy or anything, but his reasoning for what he's doing is super flawed and that's on him. It might seem a little rushed to have Skeppy leave so quickly, but I wanted them split apart to do work on emotional building on them. There will still be pining skephalo moments though. And I do wanna try writing for Puffy and the iDots in an actual serious plot.
> 
> I'm no heat waves writer, but I hope this start has interested someone. Lmao. I'm a good writer but that doesn't guarantee interest.
> 
> Also, maybe at the end of this fic I'll take it off anon. Who knows. Idk. A few people know who I am already, and that's fine, but if I feel like this fic's important enough or anything I might take off anon just to feel proud of it or something
> 
> Neko if you're reading this I told you I was writing tonight lol


	2. Life In A Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skeppy had been true to his own word- making it out of Dream SMP territory by the nightfall. His surroundings now were unfamiliar yet familiar, traces of memories in the back of his head giving recognition to the landscape that lay before him. He’d traveled through these untouched areas before only once. Back when he and Bad were coming to the SMP lands together, nervousness and excitement abound. Bad had already been there before, so it was mainly Skeppy who had been nervous. The nether demon had been so keen to reassure him that coming to live there with him was a good idea, that it was what he wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELCOME BACK TO PAIN FEATURING MORE PAIN
> 
> I promise it won't be pain all the time there will be lighthearted moments in between because full angst 24/7 is bad for viewer retention I have learned this!!! I also won't keep y'all in the dark about Bad's reason for too long!!! 
> 
> SONG: Life In A Hole (Unlike Pluto- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_jJ8gCeaio)

Skeppy had been true to his own word- making it out of Dream SMP territory by the nightfall. His surroundings now were unfamiliar yet familiar, traces of memories in the back of his head giving recognition to the landscape that lay before him. He’d traveled through these untouched areas before only once. Back when he and Bad were coming to the SMP lands together, nervousness and excitement abound. Bad had already been there before, so it was mainly Skeppy who had been nervous. The nether demon had been so keen to reassure him that coming to live there with him was a good idea, that it was what he wanted.

Oh, if only he could tell past Skeppy the consequences of saying yes now.

The night gave way to the kingdom of monsters, nothing new. Its usual citizens were out and about, and Skeppy had no motivation to mess around with them. He’d packed a portable bed for his travels along with his fighting gear- he planned to travel during some nights, and sleep for the others. Given all of the mentally draining events that had happened only a few hours prior, sleep was a more than welcome escape from reality to him. As much as the prospect of being safe as soon as possible was tempting, the diamond man could already feel his legs turning to jelly with each forced step. The moon’s gentle light was more than enough to be a lull to his tiredness, bringing it out to the surface and spreading over every inch of his skin. The slight extra weight from his head box was doing him no favors either.

He was alone out here, no civilization around, just him. That thought alone was enough to completely stop him in his tracks as he set up camp for the night. Looking at the tiny, one-person tent he took with him, swaddled invisibly by utter silence, it was enough to bring those damn tears back stinging in his eyes. He grunted to himself, mentally telling himself to snap out of it as he placed a few torches around his temporary stay. Without another look around, Skeppy lugged himself and his packed things into the tiny space. The portable bed was tucked snugly into the corner, secure. The sheets were matching to the color of his outfit- that same light blue that diamonds shared with him. Bad had made him this bed- given it to him as a little gift the first night of them being in the SMP together.

_ “Well, I know we don’t really have a proper house set up yet, but we should make safe spawnpoints for ourselves so we don’t end up back in Invaded by mistake! So I made you this! I got those rarer swamp flowers for the color! You match!” _

Dammit, he couldn’t even leave Bad behind properly, could he? Beds had been abundant in the SMP territory since everything was way more established since they had arrived, why did he have to take this bed with him instead of literally any other bed he could’ve found? It couldn’t be helped- it wasn’t safe for him to try looking for sheep at this hour anyways. He could get rid of the bed as soon as he was back in Invaded territory. Despite the less than stellar reason for his returning, Skeppy couldn’t help but feel relieved and excited at the idea of being able to see his other friends again. It had been way too long since he’d seen them all. He had been meaning to visit at some point, but with all of the activity and chaos that the SMP territory attracted, there just hadn’t been a perfect time. Well, he supposed he didn’t have to worry about that anymore.

Maybe going back home wasn’t as bad as it seemed. He knew that his friends would ask where Bad was, surprised to see him alone, and he’d have to explain everything even if he didn’t want to relive it all. But they were friends with Bad too, and they had a right to know. As long as they didn’t dwell on it for too long, Skeppy could see himself finding happiness living with them once more. That hoped filled thought was enough to keep him going for now.

* * *

Skeppy spent the next few days travelling nonstop to get to Invaded- after the first night, he didn’t want to think about using that bed again. He’d gotten decent sleep at best, his constant emotional turmoil in his gut had woken him up several times during the night. It was after the seventh time he saw the sun rising, and he decided that sleep was going to be off the menu until he got to his destination.

The next few nights were full of careful walking and brisk running depending on if he was stealthy enough to avoid being seen by mobs. He couldn’t avoid them all, but for the most part he remained unbothered as he walked. Skeppy took in the landscapes he traversed with a newfound appreciation for the natural beauty of the world. All of the man-made creation and destruction that came from L’Manberg, Dream SMP, Pogtopia, all of those ridiculous pocket nations… they were scars on the world. Ugly and infected. Those places brought out the ugly and worst of anyone who lived in or near it. The farther away Skeppy got from that wretched territory, the more he realized that all of the “beauty” it held was nothing more than a mirage. A false belief for its citizens that things could and would get better one day, they just had to hold on. Some of them really did believe that everyone could live in peace one day.

Not in the cards for Skeppy. Not that he was one to believe in it, anyway.

Maybe it was all of this chaos that had been the thing that came in between him and Bad. The chaos twisted the thoughts and beliefs of people all the time in that territory- something might’ve happened without him that made Bad realize he didn’t want to be friends anymore. Bad had always said he’d loved all of that chaos, as the leader of the Badlands, that was really all he wanted. Chaos. Disorder. Maybe it was at that point that things stopped making sense about and around the nether demon. It would also explain the avoidance.

With a heavy heart, Skeppy knew that he’d never get closure for this. No one but Bad himself could explain to the diamond man the reason  _ why,  _ and it was impossible now that he’d left. But how could anyone reasonably expect him to stay when his best friend was hurting him so much? Bad had made it pretty damn clear he didn’t want to talk anyways.

A sudden wave of anger washed over Skeppy as he let out a snarl. Who the hell did that demon think he was? How on earth could he even begin to justify his actions as “choosing Skeppy”? In what world was abandoning your best friend for nearly a month without a word or any warning “choosing” them?

“Ugh.” Skeppy groaned aloud, rolling his eyes. He was just going in mental circles at this point, thinking about the same few things, repeating his cycles of angry and sad emotions. He needed to get to Invaded as soon as possible, or he’d go mad out here alone, falling to his own inner turmoils. He couldn’t help but think of the times that Bad would give him dumb emotional turmoils that actually didn’t hurt.

What did that mean, exactly? Well… loving your best friend wasn’t a rare thing. It was the little things that he would do that could send warm feelings through Skeppy’s stomach- the joy of simply being able to hang out, his gentle laugh whenever Skeppy managed to impress him with one of his terrible jokes, stuff like that. It was normal to feel happy when your best friend was happy. Especially when Skeppy owed so much to the nether demon.

Painful memories now.

Ironically, painful in more than one way, because while Skeppy wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings, he tripped on a stray clump of dirt, and fell nearly flat on his face. His nose smashed into the front of his head box, and he hissed in pain as the contact point stung. He scrambled up to his feet as quickly as he could, realizing with slight horror that his little commotion had caught the attention of an entire horde of zombies.   
  
“Oh, swell…” Skeppy grumbled, quickly fishing his sword out from his travel pack. In all honesty, he knew that he was very close to Invaded territory now, and he could probably do with just turning tail and running, but he was angry and frustrated now and he couldn’t think of a better distraction than beating up a bunch of undead creeps. It was probably better he blew off his steam before getting to his friends so he didn’t accidentally take it out on them.

And this is what started an almost ten minute screaming match of him swinging his sword a mile a minute at the approaching enemies, yelling obscenities with a white-hot fury that had been building up in the pit of his stomach the entire journey. Of course, yelling was counterproductive, because it was just attracting even more monsters to his area, and he had to fight those ones off too, and oh goodness there was a creeper behind him and zombies in front of him  _ oh shit I’ve messed up--! _

Skeppy was launched through the air and landed painfully after the creeper exploded. He’d managed to turn around just enough that his shield could block some of the blast, but it wasn’t enough, and so the diamond boy had been rather hilariously ragdolled across the clearing. If he thought scrunching his nose against his head box had been painful, it was certainly nothing now compared to the searing pain in his left leg.

“Are you serious?!” Skeppy hollered angrily, stubbornly standing back up, now with a heavy limp. “Is that all you’ve got then, you freaks?! I can still fight!”

“Yo, I knew I recognized that indignant screaming!” Came a familiar, amused voice. Arrows began to rain from somewhere nearby, until all of the zombies still alive dropped dead.

Skeppy blinked, taking in the new development, as a very familiar brown beaver man came into view- he’d been slightly camouflaged amongst the dirt at night. “Spifey?”

“Skeppy!” Spifey replied cheerfully. “You were way over your head man, look at you! I don’t even know what you’re doing here, but we should move. You’re hurt and the night will bring more monsters soon enough. Come on.”

Spifey maneuvered himself under Skeppy’s arm, helping him to walk with his injured leg. Spifey made sure to carry a torch in his mouth and his sword in his free hand, just in case, as the two of them made the rest of the journey back to the living area in Invaded.

“It’s so good to see you Skep! Though we could’ve met up under better circumstances. What’re you doing all the way out here?”

Skeppy sighed. “Things came up, I had to leave the DSMP territory. There’s no better place for me to go to than you guys, even if you do bully me sometimes.”

A suffocating silence fell between the two suddenly as they walked, and Skeppy sighed again with a hint of resignation.

“You’re wondering why Bad isn’t with me, aren’t you?”

“Well…” Spifey started awkwardly. “Yeah, I am, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that you being alone and having to leave the DSMP has something to do with something that happened between you two. And you’re hurt now, in more ways than one. Of course I’m worried.”

Skeppy grumbled to himself, secretly grateful to have the concern and attention of a friend again.

“Look… Skeppy, let’s just get back to home and get you healed up. We don’t have to talk about whatever happened right away. I’ll tell the guys to lay off the question as well when we get back, okay? But we are all here for you, I hope you know this.”

Skeppy nodded, expression softening. “I know. I’m so glad for it.”

It took the two around another hour of walking carefully to get back to the familiar, homely area of Invaded where everyone chose to live. The minute they stepped onto the flat grass lawn, Spifey sucked in a breath and shouted into the camp.

“YO! EVERYONE WAKE UP! WE HAVE A GUEST!”

Skeppy cringed as the beaver nearly blew out his eardrums, Spifey chuckling smugly at the diamond boy’s reaction. Soon enough, all of the annoyed grumbling from the rudely awoken members gave way to excitable shouts as their eyes fell on Spifey and Skeppy.

“AYO!! THERE’S MY FAVORITE DIAMOND BOY!” Vurb barked, bounding over and immediately taking Skeppy from the beaver. “I have no idea what you did to injure yourself, but let’s get a move on come on! Into the house, let’s get you fixed up you blue idiot!”

“Hey!” Skeppy shouted indignantly. “I’m not a blue idiot, you’re a blue idiot! Look at what you’re wearing!”

“I’m a pug!” Vurb bickered back. “I’m brown! Not blue!”

The playful, light bantering of the reunited group continued even as they all walked into the house- even Mega seemed genuinely excited to see Skeppy again. Spifey got to work trying to heal Skeppy’s leg the best he could, while Zelk, Vurb, Finn, and Skeppy chatted back and forth, Mega giving a nod here and there to involve himself in the conversation.

And then came the question Skeppy didn’t want to hear.

“Where’s Bad?”

All of the conversation stopped as Skeppy’s smile dropped. Spifey whirled around, giving them all stern looks, but it was already too late. Everyone already had expressions of guilt and concern as Skeppy directed his gaze to the floor.

“Skeppy’s injured and tired from his journey here to us.” Spifey cut into the silence. “We should avoid more serious questions until he’s got some sleep in him. Do we all agree?”

There was a subdued but unanimous ‘yes’ from the rest of the boys as the mood was dampened, but it couldn’t be helped. It was still late in the middle of the night, so Zelk, Mega, and Finn went back to bed, but not without trying to cheer Skeppy up a bit first. Only Vurb and Spifey stayed up to watch over Skeppy and his injured leg.

“Guys, I can manage on my own you know. It’s safe here. I can handle it.” Skeppy said sarcastically, limping over to his travel pack to regrettably get his portable bed out.

Vurb stopped him halfway across the room, giving him a gentle push to the floor. “Sit, you moron. You’re injured, and you’re still trying to walk. We can help.”

“We know you’re capable, Skeppy, don’t get us wrong.” Spifey added with a nod. “That won’t change the fact that we’re here and still awake because we actually want to make sure you’re okay.”

Skeppy smiled despite himself. “Aww, you guys… you guys are simps.”

“BRO! You ruined the moment! We were about to kiss!” Vurb complained as Skeppy cackled from his spot on the floor.

Spifey shook his head, rolling his eyes. He was still glad that Skeppy was laughing, even through whatever had happened between him and Bad. He’d tell them what happened in his own time. All they could do now was make sure he was loved and supported.

* * *

Waking up and doing what he was doing every day hurt more and more. So many times, he’d come to second-guess his actions, because the hurt and loneliness that followed him everywhere like a raincloud was almost too much to bear. But he had to keep doing this, he had to protect his best friend. He had to protect his best friend from himself, because even now, almost a month after the demise of the red egg, Bad still didn’t feel fully in control of his own mind and body.

He knew the egg was dead- everyone had seen its destroyed remains, everyone including him, even through the fog of finally coming back into control of himself he could recognize that it was dead and gone. They’d won, the egg was no more. So why did some of the motions of his limbs still feel alien, some of his thoughts still feel foreign? He couldn’t shake the feeling that the egg’s influence was still living in his system somehow, even after death.

Oh, goodness, he had fought Skeppy that day. Fought him with real swords and real ferocity. He should have done more to fight the influence of the egg. Even though neither of them had been injured during the battle, the idea that Bad had could’ve seriously injured his best friend, or even killed him for that stupid parasite, it still made him shiver and sob. Haunted by false memories of him waking up too late and having to cradle a dying Skeppy in his arms.

This was why he had to distance himself from Skeppy as much as he possibly could. Bad didn’t trust his own mind and body to be fully his anymore. What if… what if one day he fell again and he hurt Skeppy for real? He couldn’t… he couldn’t even allow any way for that to happen. This was the only option. It was for Skeppy. To protect him. He chose Skeppy, and he would do so over and over again even if it meant tearing his heart in two. Even if it meant driving Skeppy away. Until Bad could find a way to trust his own mind and body again, Skeppy had to stay as far away from him as possible.

But still… after the outburst he’d overheard from his poor friend was enough to slightly alter his plans. He’d gone this whole time without telling Skeppy anything, and he knew now just how much his plan of greater good was hurting him. It was the least Bad could do now, to tell him the reason why. He knew Skeppy would fight tooth and nail to disagree with his conclusion, but he still needed time to fully feel like himself again. He was doing it for Skeppy, anyways.

But try as he might now, walking around the whole DSMP territory, he couldn’t find a single trace of the diamond boy anywhere. A pit in his stomach was starting to form, and the demon was starting to grow worried. Had something happened? He decided eventually, tail between his legs, to go to Puffy and ask for her help.

He expected the glare he received when Puffy opened her door to see him standing there. He didn’t fully hear everything Skeppy had told her, but he knew the look was deserved somehow.

“Uh… hi, Puffy. Um… do you know where Skeppy is?”

Puffy didn’t answer for a solid minute, making Bad nervously fidget under her hard gaze. Finally, after that painful minute, she answered in a cold tone. But it was the last thing Bad was expecting her to say.

“Yeah, I do, and like hell I’m gonna tell you where he went. He’s not here anymore, Bad. He left, because you got what you wanted finally. You drove him away. He’s out of your life now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bad's struggling too. I'd imagine he would react like this after the red egg arc. It would be scarring, not being in control of your won mind and body for so long. That doesn't justify his ridiculous choice of giving Skeppy the boot for a whole ass month though! I'm just saying they're both going through some things... yeh
> 
> Idk how many chapters this will have. Idk if I write any of the iDots very well. Who knows. By the way, you guys can call me S!! I have she/her pronouns :) Maybe that might hint you to who I am, maybe not.
> 
> See yall next chapter >:)


	3. Apprehension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skeppy’s leg was the first thing he felt when he blinked his bleary eyes awake. There was faint sunshine filtering into the room through the glass panes, blocked on purpose with some blocks of wool to avoid the full blast of sun awakening the people in slumber. However, the annoying throbbing in his left leg distracted him from really considering the thoughtfulness of the blocks. His leg was already healing, thankfully, as it definitely wasn’t as bad as last night, but the throb was still irritating and he knew immediately that walking was still going to be a pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI IM STILL ALIVE I'M SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG FOR ME TO GET THIS OUT I HAVE THE ATTENTION SPAN OF A WALNUT
> 
> Welcome back to pain town, serving up more pain once again. Love that
> 
> SONG USED: Apprehension - Solunary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cwZCpaVdQM)

Skeppy’s leg was the first thing he felt when he blinked his bleary eyes awake. There was faint sunshine filtering into the room through the glass panes, blocked on purpose with some blocks of wool to avoid the full blast of sun awakening the people in slumber. However, the annoying throbbing in his left leg distracted him from really considering the thoughtfulness of the blocks. His leg was already healing, thankfully, as it definitely wasn’t as bad as last night, but the throb was still irritating and he knew immediately that walking was still going to be a pain. Another thing that Skeppy noticed was that his head box was gone; he personally didn’t remember taking it off to go to sleep, nor did he really remember falling asleep in the first place, but he knew he was safe with his friends. One of them must have taken it off before he fully conked out, in an attempt to make him more comfortable. He wasn’t too big on taking his head box off around anyone other than… well. Him. But things change, clearly.

Skeppy sat up slowly, stretching his back muscles as he yawned. He turned his head slightly and was met with the sight of Vurb sleeping in a bed a few feet away, fast asleep, none the wiser that his guest was awake. Skeppy tilted his head slightly, feeling a relieving bit of warmth bloom in his chest. Vurb had moved that bed in to keep watch over the diamond boy as he slept, to make sure he had help if he needed it.

As much as Skeppy didn’t want to admit it, he realized now how lonely he’d gotten going to bed terrifyingly alone back in the DSMP. He had Puffy and sometimes Quackity to chat with, along with Awesamdude and Antfrost, but they also had better people to spend their time with mainly other than him. Skeppy had never been too active in the social parts of the DSMP like Bas had been. It really wasn't anyone’s fault but his that he didn't have any real close friends there. But the isolation had still been crippling, in more ways than one. Even now, just waking up with someone in the same room as him for once, it made his heart warm and his thoughts calm. He deserved better than what he'd gone through.

Skeppy hummed to himself, blissfully emotionless for the time being. He dragged himself out of his bed after a few failed attempts, limping over to Vurb where he slept, and smirked. Without warning, Skeppy laid a hand on top of Vurb’s sleeping head, between the pug’s ears, and ruffled the fur there less than gently.

“Bruuuuh….” Vurb whined out sleepily as the diamond boy struggled to hold in his giggles. “The fuck are you doing…?”

“Vuuuuuuurb!” Skeppy teased cheerfully. “You're such a simp! You were so worried that you couldn't bear to leave me alone! You really do live up to the “man’s best friend” thing don't you?”

“Piss off, it's too early for the bullying.” Vurb barked with annoyance, but there was no malice behind it. His eyes popped open and bore into Skeppy’s with narrowed expression. “It's too early for your blue ass to be out of bed! Go back to sleep! You shouldn't be on your feet anyways, you're still injured!”

Skeppy stuck his tongue out. “I’m feeling better!”

“I know for a fact that not enough time has passed for the healing potions to fully take effect. Get your butt back in bed!”

“Or what?”

Vurb cracked an eye open again to stare down the diamond boy. “I may only be a pug, but I can still tear you a new one.”

Skeppy snorted. “Okay, this conversation is getting weird. God forbid I interrupt your cat naps… I mean dog naps. Just thought I should mention it.”

Vurb stared at him quizzically, the gears in his head turning, trying to figure out what he meant by ‘it’. It took another moment of pondering before the pug’s snout formed into an ‘o’ shape of realization, and his eyes softened slightly. “Hey man, it's not a big deal. Spifey laid into me a bit when you fell asleep last night, talking about how… well, you know. We aren't stupid. All of us can tell you've been hurting badly lately, emotionally I mean. It concerns us, even if you don't want it to. We hate seeing you in pain. It was the least I could do.”

Skeppy gave him a strained smile. “I know.”

Vurb noticed the atmosphere change immediately. He sat up, hauling out of bed to place a steady hand of support on Skeppy’s back. “Go back to bed. It's too early, and I have something I want to show you later. It's no good if you're still tired and hurt. Let the healing potions do their work.”

Skeppy made a noise, showing that he heard the pug, and gave no real attempt to fight as Vurb gently guided him back to his own bed. The moment his head hit the pillow again, he was already starting to fade out. Vurb gave him a gentle smile.

“You're with us now. You belong here, don't you forget that.”

* * *

“Gone?” Bad echoed, voice hoarse with disbelief. “No, nonono, Puffy I know you’re mad at me but that’s not funny. Don’t say that.”

Puffy regarded him with no signs of remorse in her eyes. “I’m not lying to you. You made this bed, now lie in it.”

Puffy moved to close the door behind her, completely done with the conversation, but a frantic, clawed hand surged forwards and stopped the door in its path. Puffy turned back to glare at the offending action, only to be met with a furiously desperate expression on the demon’s face, white glowing eyes suspiciously shiny.

“Puffy, stop. Stop it, this isn’t funny!” Bad roared, panic in his tone. “You tell me where my Skeppy is right now!”

Puffy scoffed. “Your Skeppy? Of all the stupid things you could say, that’s one of the most ridiculous! How can you still have the nerve to call him yours after pushing him through emotional torment for a month! You abandoned him, to the point where I had to see my friend cry, and I’ve NEVER seen Skeppy cry before. You have no right to think you still mean anything to him when you made him think he meant absolutely nothing to you!” She snapped back, unfazed by the possible danger the nether demon could pose.

Bad flinched back like he’d been physically struck by something. Puffy knew she was just being needlessly harsh now, but the floodgates of frustration had opened now and there was nothing to do to hold her anger back. “I get that I don’t have any insight on your side of the story of why the hell you would choose to be like this, but considering how awful and stupid you’ve been acting for this past month I don’t think I owe you the chance to explain yourself, much less explain yourself to Skeppy! I don’t care how much you might beg and plead at my feet, I’m not going to stoop so low as to become as awful as a friend you’ve been to him just because you finally got your head out of your ass! I made a promise to Skeppy not to tell anyone where he went and I plan to keep that promise as long as he wants me to.”

Bad was stunned, tears freely falling down his face now as every toxic word Puffy spat sunk deep under his skin. “Puffy…”

“Go away, Bad. I don’t even want to see you right now.” Puffy grumbled, pushing his hand off the door. “Try again in a few days, I don’t know. But just know that you fucked up, big time, and I don’t know if you’ll be able to clean up your mess. Your actions have consequences. Live with them.”

And without another word, Puffy closed the door on her friend with a frustrated sigh. She never liked fighting with her friends, but she knew damn well who was in the wrong with this one. She really didn’t know how Bad could ever think pushing Skeppy away like that was a good idea. Whatever ridiculous reason had gotten into his head to justify it, it wasn’t her job to de-worm him of it. Puffy owed him nothing.

* * *

When Skeppy woke up for the second time a few hours later, he felt a bluntly-clawed hand ruffling his hair in the same manner he had done to Vurb hours prior.

“Jerk.” Skeppy mumbled out, knowing it was Vurb getting his revenge for his earlier actions. The familiar laugh that belonged to the pug confirmed his assumptions.

“You started it, dude. I have something I want to show you, it’s time to get up now! It’s almost noon, anyways, we should get some food in you before you starve.”

Skeppy groaned, turning his body over the blink into the much harsher light of the room. The wool blocks covering the windows had been removed, though at what point he didn’t know. “What happened to ‘oh Skeppy, get your ass back in bed, you’re hurt and tired and you need to be babied oh no’?”

Vurb snorted. “Oh shut up. You act like you aren’t desperate to be up and walking around right now with the rest of us. I could hear your stomach growling while you were asleep anyways.”

“Dude.” Skeppy grumbled, turning away for a moment to stave off his embarrassment over that fact. “You didn’t need to tell me that, that’s so scuffed.”

Vurb laughed. “Get up, diamond boy, we’ve got an assortment of meat and vegetables to fill that monster of a stomach you’ve got. Plus, everyone else doesn’t want to eat unless you’re with us. It’s your first day back! You could at least grace us with your presence for lunch.”

Skeppy gave him a sarcastic look, hiding his real gratefulness under an aloof facade. He swung his legs over the side of his bed, keeping a firm hand on the bed’s headrest as he stood up. His leg felt even better than before, but there was still a slight twinge in it if he tried to apply pressure. If he absolutely had to walk on it, he could, but he knew Vurb would shout at him to let it heal fully before he used it again. “Bring me to the food, sir.”

The two exited the room they’d left themselves in for the night, walking out into the more open area of the safe camp. Skeppy noticed that there were new structures, structures that hadn’t been there the last time he had been in Invaded territory. Skeppy frowned.

“I was gone for far too long. Look at all of this new stuff you guys have done, and I missed it all. It really makes me realize how long it’s been since I visited.”

“Don’t worry too much about it man!” Vurb replied cheerily. “You were busy with your business in the DSMP, whatever was going on there, no need to fret about staying away for so long.”

“But I feel like I kind of… abandoned you all here.” Skeppy mumbled hesitantly. “I packed up and left without much of a second thought just because Bad wanted me to come with him. Don’t try to tell me you guys weren’t just a little pissed at me for that, by the way. I could see it in your faces.”

Vurb made a face. “Okay, yeah, sure, it was a little jarring because we had no real warning, but at the same time you are your own person and we can’t control where you go or what you want to do. We’re your friends, not your parents. We’re a support network when you need it, because you do the same for us. A single disagreement isn’t going to change that.”

Skeppy smiled as the two of them entered into one of the larger buildings, where Finn, Zelk, Mega, and Spifey were waiting for them. “Thank you.”

* * *

“Alright, now that you’ve had your fill of food, I still have that thing I wanted to show you!” Vurb barked out as the group dispersed from the table. Spifey and Zelk were going out to hunt for more meat, while Finn and Mega said they would check up on the vegetable farms they’d set up a while ago. That left Skeppy with the pug man once more.

“I still have no idea what it is, should I be worried?” Skeppy asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“It’s a surprise! Well, sort of. Of course you don’t know what it is, that would defeat the purpose! Come on, no time to waste now, it’s just in that far building on the right there.” Vurb explained slightly, pointing his fingers to the mentioned building.

“Alright then, let’s go.” Skeppy said with affirmation, and the two walked in. “What’s this building meant for, anyways? I’m assuming all of the new structures that have popped up since I was here last all have a different purpose.”

“Of course!” Vurb replied. “Most of the new stuff is just separate rooms for all of us, since we didn’t have a really organized living quarters. So most of them are just our separate rooms- which, by the way, we should talk about making you your own room soon! One of the other buildings is the bathhouse, because we got tired of having to go down to one of the random rivers nearby and hope that no animals or fish bother us, stuff like that. We also developed a bit of a plumbing system for swapping out the used water with fresh water, you’ll have to try it out sometime!”

“Sometime? More like later today. I smell like travel, and zombies. It’s disgusting.” Skeppy said, sticking out his tongue.

“Yeah, I wasn’t going to say anything, but you stink bad bro.” Vurb teased, narrowly dodging a playful swing from Skeppy. “You’ve seen the eating hall, of course, we were just there. There’s a bit of a kitchen connected to the side of that building, so we can cook the meats and such. Or make baked potatoes, if we want. And, of course, this building is…”

Vurb took him around a corner, and led him into a big open hall with many smaller sections. Skeppy’s jaw dropped at the intricacy of it all, taking in the block choices and design. His eyes lingered on just about every inch of the building, until his eyes fell upon two small figures in the back of the room. He gawked.

“Wait… is that…”

“Surprise!” Vurb shouted with a grin. “I don’t know what your and Bad’s plans for them were when you packed up and left, but we couldn’t just leave them to their own devices. This building is supposed to act as the pet hall, though the rest of us don’t exactly have a lot of pets of our own yet! Someone will get attached to some random animal at some point. We built this place in preparation for that!”

Skeppy walked forward briskly, barely acknowledging Vurb’s words as he came to a stop in front of the two perched parrots.

“Blueberry… Strawberry…”

“I think they missed you!” Vurb supplied helpfully. “They had each other, obviously, as well as us, but nothing could really take the place of their owners. Although… I’m not sure about Strawberry, considering… you know.”

Blueberry had chirped excitedly the moment Skeppy had come to stand in front of her, flying off her perch and flapping around his shoulders. “It’s so good to see you again, girl!” Skeppy cooed, reaching a hand out and stroking a finger over Blueberry’s vibrant head. The bird chirped happily again. Skeppy’s smile fell slightly when his eyes fell on Strawberry, sitting alone, almost lost. He frowned. “I can’t separate them. They belong together.”

Vurb tilted his head. “What are you going to do with him, then?”

Skeppy made a face for a moment, before he stuck a finger out and offered it as a perch to the red bird. Strawberry looked at it hesitantly for a moment, before hopping over from the branch perch he and Blueberry had been sat on moments before.

“I’ll adopt him. Strawberry knows me, and I’m Blueberry’s owner. It’s only right, I think. I don’t wanna just leave him here…”

“Oh, you plan on taking them everywhere, do you?”

“Well, I live here now, don’t I?” Skeppy replied with a knowing look. “This place is nice, but it’s so big and empty. Not suited for birds as tiny as they are. You could house a dragon in here if you really wanted. Plus, I think it would be nice to have the constant company of my pets, you know?”

Vurb nods. “Fair enough. Well, you’ve got two lovely birds to take care of now, hopefully that gives you something to do around here! You’ll have to get their food, but considering we already set up giant farms, getting seeds won’t be a problem for you.”

“Well, I’ll have something to do in the way I have to build my own room. I’m sure you guys will want to help, but I will want to do it mostly in my own design, if that’s alright.”

“No problems there! The less work I have to do, the better.” Vurb said with a chuckle. “But yeah. That was my surprise! Now go to the bathhouse. You stink. Fix it.”

“Alright, jerk! Screw you too!” Skeppy hollered after him as the pug sauntered off with a laugh. But he did agree, the stink of his own body was starting to annoy him. “Well… I don’t want to leave you two in here. You guys won’t mind if I bring you with me to the bathhouse, right? As long as you don’t look.” Skeppy said, talking idly to the parrots perched on both of his shoulders.

It took a few moments for Skeppy to figure out the ‘plumbing system’ Vurb had talked about, but he eventually got the hang of it. He flipped one of the switches on the floor that opened the bottom to reveal small, controlled chunks of magma under the water to control the temperature. He wasn’t looking to ice himself at the moment. Once he sunk in, the quiet chirping of his birds a few feet away led him to lose control on his thoughts a bit.

Looking at Strawberry, and his brilliant red plumage, he couldn’t help but think of… him. The red of him and Strawberry were two different shades, but they had completed each other in an eye-pleasing way. The three of them together were going to forever be missing the last piece of their otherwise perfect square. Well, it had been perfect, at least…

Skeppy felt his bottom lip quiver a bit, and he clenched his fists as they shook slightly. “Dammit…” Skeppy hissed out, tears stinging at his eyes, wanting to escape. “Bad…” Skeppy croaked out, feeling the sadness of being left behind pouring back in.

He still really missed him, even after all he’d dragged him through.

And it hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, making Puffy toxic because that's honestly how I would react at that point. Man. Bad feelings all around. Bad will find his way soon though. Quackity will make an appearance next chapter, and that chapter as a whole will focus more on Bad since this one was kinda Skeppy-centric.
> 
> Also "My Skeppy" aka pandering to the lowkey shippy side of it oops
> 
> Living through a mentally tormenting experience can have its ups and downs like I tried to show here. You can still find it in yourself to smile or enjoy yourself, but at the same time those drowning feelings can come slamming back out of nowhere. It sucks.
> 
> See you guys next chapter <3 -S


	4. Adagio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The egg really had won, hadn’t it? Even in death, it was still causing despair and chaos in the members of the DSMP through him, only this time he really was in full control of himself and all of this blame was rightfully pinned on him. Oh goodness, what had he done?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God can I just say it's so fucking funny to me when I'm on Twitter and I see someone who I know reads my fics interact with my tweets and they have NO GODDAMN CLUE ITS ME
> 
> Ryla has found my twitter account multiple times and has been none the wiser LMAOOOOOOOOOOO
> 
> Anyways Quackity's here now and Quackity is a great friend to BadBoyHalo, a best friend, even

The egg really had won, hadn’t it? Even in death, it was still causing despair and chaos in the members of the DSMP through him, only this time he really was in full control of himself and all of this blame was rightfully pinned on him. Oh goodness, what had he done? Where could he even begin to comprehend where he had gotten so lost in his own fears and trauma that his common sense had been swallowed by such a thick fog where it all led to this?

He was awake now.

But at what cost? Everything, most definitely. How could he begin to justify pushing Skeppy away like he had been for so long? What, to protect him? How clueless had he been this whole time? It was like his consciousness had been in an impenetrable fog for the past month and it had finally been dispelled by the angry sun that was Puffy and her harsh words. Harsh, but so incredibly deserved he thinks now. He had been so caught up in his fear that the egg was still able to control him somehow, to resurrect its hold back from the brink of existence and take him over that he had failed to realize that his fears were true of his own allowance. He’d let the clearly impossible what-ifs of the egg control him this whole time, leaving him alone with its red hue once again with no way to escape. He’d drowned, hard, and it was only now that he was reaching for the surface on his fingertips, but the iron ball chained to his leg of how he’d so wronged Skeppy was keeping him from reaching that so needed gasp of air. His lungs were going to burst, and it had all led up to this.

That was where Quackity found him, having crawled pitifully across the prime path before collapsing completely after barely making it out of Puffy’s property area. The tears that clouded the demon’s glowing white eyes were making it impossible for him to see, and his lungs… his lungs felt as if they were really full of water, liquid guilt and hatred of his own actions that he couldn’t breathe. He was choking, drowning, with no real water in sight, and it was reflecting outwardly as black little wisps of his demon magic curled around his form. His own body thought he was in physical danger, that it was activating itself to be faster, stronger, more dangerous when the only thing that was hurting him was his own thoughts. And there was no escape from them.

“Hey, hey, Bad, breathe with me, come on dude, you've got to breathe…” Quackity’s stern yet concerned voice broke through the sound barrier of Bad’s emotional meltdown just for a moment, and the demon startled knowing someone was there with him. He recognized the soft weight of a hand on his back now.

“Bad. You’re alright buddy. Focus with me, I know you like to ignore me sometimes but you have to listen to me just this once.” His voice continued to sound like normal, like it always did, but even Bad in his poor state could hear the underlying slight quiver of panic. He knew Quackity was doing his best with what he could.

“I- I’m… I’m sorry…” Bad managed to choke out, his breaths coming in now in big heaves. At least he was breathing again, that was a good sign. Breathing was good. Not choking to death on your own guilt was good. He could work with this.

“Sorry for what?” Quackity asked genuinely, his head cocked to the side in gentle confusion. “Bad, what’s going on? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a state this bad, nor did I think you could ever get here? Why are you alone out here? Where is-?”

“DON’T!” Bad barked out, before heaving a breath again. “D-don’t… I’m sorry for… yelling at you Quackity. Just… I can’t. I can’t hear his name right now…”

Quackity’s expression turned from concerned to angry. “He didn’t do this to you, did he?! What kind of sick, twisted friend would do this, to their best friend no less! Oh, if I ever see him again mark my words-!”

“Quackity…” Bad whined, voice hoarse from all of his gasping. “He didn’t… it’s my fault. All of this… Everything is my fault.”

Quackity’s expression fell back to being confused. “I don’t understand. What’s happened, Bad? What did you do?”

“I can tell you…” Bad puffed out, arms shaking as he tried to push himself up into a better position. “But… maybe not in the middle of the prime path… Do you have anywhere we can talk more privately?”

Quackity nodded quickly. “I’m sure I can find a place that no one’s occupying at the moment. Come on, let me help you up. That was a rather nasty meltdown you were having, anyone could tell that from a mile away. I don’t want you falling over when we’re walking, so you should probably put an arm around my shoulder, yeah?”

“Quackity, I’m so much taller than you.” Bad said, a bit of amusement in his tone.

“Don’t care! You’re going to use me as a crutch until your body gets its strength back from that. I don’t exactly have the best knowledge on things like that, but I can tell you’re exhausted just from a few minutes of it.”

Bad was silent, his clawed hands reaching up for the man in the beanie as he helped pull the demon to his feet again. Like Quackity had promised, he maneuvered one of the demon’s arms around his shoulders, or at least he tried. It was more like Bad had a firm hand placed on his shoulder as crutch support, if anything.

“Hey, Quackity?” Bad broke his silence a few minutes later, after they were well on their way to a more secluded place where someone was less likely to find the pair. “Thank you for… pulling me back. I don’t know what would have happened if I had remained unfound.”

Quackity looked up to flash him a smile. “No problem! We’re friends, aren’t we? That’s what friends should do. No matter what has happened, I’ve got your back, okay?”

Bad frowned, looking away. “I don’t think you’ll be saying that after I tell you why you found me like that. Drowning in my own guilt over the choices I’ve made for the past month following the destruction of the egg…”

Quackity frowned to match Bad. “The red egg? That stupid, trash thing? But you guys killed it, you just said it was destroyed, why is it still apparently an issue?”

The two stopped walking suddenly, having made it to a less popular area of the territory. It was most likely no one would come by, as there was nothing of real interest there. Bad sighed, sitting down in the grass as Quackity followed suit. The younger man fixed his gaze on the demon sternly.

“Okay Bad. Tell me. What happened?”

And just like that, Bad opened up. Opened up about the direct aftermath during the day they finally destroyed the egg, the night following the event that sent him on the path that led him to where he was now, and the outburst he’d witnessed from Skeppy that changed everything. Retelling the past month’s events didn’t make it hurt any less for Bad- if anything, it just felt like he was reliving every wretched day his fear-poisoned mind dug Skeppy and his well-being a little bit deeper in the ground, and how he had been completely ignorant of just how painful it had been for the other party. That entire time, he had wallowed in his own loneliness and sadness over having to distance himself from Skeppy, only now realizing he never had to at all. It had never even been a logical option.

“I had originally wanted to find Skeppy to tell him what I was doing, and give him some ridiculous justification for why I was doing it, but once I couldn’t find him I went to Puffy for help. And she absolutely tore into me, which I think I deserved at this point. She told me that Skeppy was gone, he left the DSMP territory entirely, and had made her promise not to tell anyone where he went. I have no idea where he could be right now, or what direction he even took off in. He left before I could talk to him… though I had a whole month to do it, and I was too caught up in being stupid to realize fully what I was doing.” Bad lamented, his white eyes growing glossy again. “I’ve lost him… And it’s all my fault.”

Quackity shook his head and butted in before Bad could start fully crying again. “Okay, look. Bad, yeah, you messed up, a lot, and I really don’t know how you went the whole month without realizing that, but look at it this way- you understand now, and you clearly feel like hell because of what you’ve done. That’s… a start, right? CaptainPuffy is very firmly planted on the side of Skeppy, and it sounds like she’d die for him at the moment, but she has to see reason eventually. You want to fix this, don’t you?”

Bad nodded vigorously. “More than anything. I don’t…” He paused, blinking his tears away as his voice dropped in volume. “I don’t want to live a life without Skeppy…”

Quackity looked at him with pity, placing a hand on the demon’s shoulder. “Yeah, that’s pretty clear. So you do want to fix the mess. That’s the difference between being truly bad and misguided bad. You understand your mistakes and with that understanding you can learn and bid to patch them up.”

Bad sighed. “Doesn’t make me feel any better about it…”

Quackity gave him a look. “Dude. Fine. You can be mad at yourself all you want because yes, what you did was disgusting, but there also is a time to understand that your self-hatred and anger needs a limit. Sitting and stewing in your own deprecation isn’t going to move this forward. Puffy can have a stick up her ass about it for as long as she wants, but even she’ll realize at some point that holding a grudge forever is a waste of time. Now, I’m not saying that your attempts to fix your mess will end positively, because it’s down to Skeppy to choose to forgive you at the end of the day, and if he chooses not to, then that’s on him. But he will for certain never forgive you if you don’t try.”

Bad let out a sniffle. “And what if I try and he does what you say, Quackity? What if he turns me down and I really do have to live my life without Skeppy?”

Quackity sighed. “Then you move on, Bad. I know that’s not what you want to hear, because all you really want is Skeppy and I get it, but life doesn’t always go the way you want it to. Some people may be able to forgive treatment like this, while others can’t. It’s down to the individual and varies between each person. I don’t personally know Skeppy well enough to give you a certain answer of which type of person he would seem like, but what I do know is that you two, before all of this, were practically attached at the hip and nothing could come between you two. I think you meant the world to him. I don’t know if that thought process has been tainted or completely destroyed in his head in the aftermath of your mistakes. But if I had to guess, I don’t think the bond you two shared could be fully broken. No matter what strain you two go under.”

“So… what does that mean for me?”

“It means that I believe in you, Bad.” Quackity offered gently. “I believe that you can fix this. Anyone on this server could tell you that they considered the love you and Skeppy shared to be unbreakable, never mind the type of love. Your friendship survived the egg once, it can survive the chaos of its influence again. And if no one else wants to help you fix your mistakes, I’ll still be here to help.”

Bad managed a smile for the first time in… he didn’t even remember. “Thank you.”

“No problem!” Quackity replied cheerily. “Now get up, we have work to do. Puffy’s probably going to still be mad for a good while, so we can’t rely on her yet to help. Is there anywhere you know of that Skeppy might have gone?”

“Well… there is one place. But it’s also really obvious, and if Skeppy really wanted to… to get away from me, then he might have thought about that beforehand and decided not to go there. I want to chase after him so badly, and tell him how sorry I am, but I can’t do that if I don’t know for certain where he is. I don’t want to waste time traveling to somewhere he isn’t.”

Quackity sighed. “Alright then, our work begins with getting Puffy to listen to reason. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

* * *

Skeppy had dreamed of their fight again. Somewhere along the line where he had been bathing, the heat of the bathwater and the safety of the atmosphere had lulled him to sleep. When he fell, he dreamed of their fight, dreaming of the monochrome monster that had replaced his friend, and the sharp, unforgiving edge of the sword that had come way too close to his neck more than once. Sometimes, these dreams would take creative liberties with their outcomes. Sometimes he would end up killing Bad, even though logically he knew Bad couldn’t die unless he did. Other times it would be the other way around, with Bad killing him against all odds. The fatal blow would differ sometimes too. Sometimes it would be a final stab through his chest, other times it would be a slash across his neck, always gruesome no matter the point.

The dreams would get to him every time. It didn’t matter how many times Skeppy told himself that it wasn’t going to happen in reality, that he was safe and so was Bad, it still set him on edge. This time was no different.

When he jolted awake from his nightmare, the bathwater had long since turned cold. The heating system on the water had a redstone timer, set to close itself automatically after a certain period of time to avoid fires if someone forgot to turn it off themselves. He must have been out for a while.

Blueberry and Strawberry’s soft chirps alerted him that his birds were still somewhere nearby, and that they hadn’t gotten bored of their owner doing literally nothing. He hadn’t planned on falling asleep in the first place, but here he was.

Skeppy sighed, stepping out of the cold water and flipping the drainage switch. He grabbed the towel that he had left for himself by the foot of the bath, and while he was wrapping himself in it, he caught sight of his reflection in the few blocks of mirror that stood on the wall. Mirror was a rare block to come by- he’d have to ask his friends where on earth they managed to get some later. Looking at his reflection, he could see the tiny dots of defensive diamonds growing on his skin again. For the longest time, Bad and the other iDots had come up with a potion that would stop the pesky ores from growing on his skin at all, since he had complained to them ages ago that the hard and spiky nature of his species quirk annoyed him beyond belief. He hadn’t taken the potion ever since he left DSMP. Now he was unsure if he even wanted to take it at all anymore.

The diamonds would give him extra protection. He wouldn’t have to wear armor when his biology had always tried to provide him with natural armor from the beginning. He’d wanted so hard to feel like he could fit in with everyone else, that wearing pointless armor like the rest of them had been one of those main things he thought would help him get along. But after all of his nightmares, all of the times Bad killed him through his armor in his dreams, he didn’t feel like that common armor could protect him anymore.

Change had been treating him so poorly for the past few months, what could it hurt to change his own routine of his own accord? Even before the time he had the potion, he would always work to keep the diamonds on his skin at a manageable level. He wondered what would happen if he allowed his genetics to do what it wanted. There was no real harm in letting the diamonds grow out, above the level he had deemed manageable years ago, was there?

Skeppy needed the extra protection of his natural diamonds, for the sake of his mental health. The dreams just kept getting more and more common, becoming almost nightly, and he knew he would eventually start to go mad if he didn’t do anything about it. Vurb and the others would probably voice their concerns after a while, since it would be impossible to hide the diamond growths after a certain point. His diamond growths only grew in very specific spots of his body- specifically the places that would allow for easy killing if left exposed. But they also served an offensive role as well as defensive. Skeppy remembered back to a time where he was still new at keeping his growths at bay, and at some point he realized that there were giant, curved spikes of the crystal protruding from his back, like his own personal body axe. Getting those original growths to go away had been a pain, but now he wondered if they would grow back if he allowed them to.

It was a lot to think about.

Skeppy finished drying himself off, and quickly put his clothes back on. Letting his diamonds grow was a passive choice, and it required no actual work on his part. He had other things to do, like go out to gather materials to build his own room. He’d move his bed and stuff to the pet hall later, just so he could let Strawberry and Blueberry keep their perch while he was busy working. His life was to be lived here now, surrounded by his real friends in Invaded territory.

His real friends… he would protect them at all costs. Protect them from any harm, common or alien, to keep what happened from happening again. And if anything tried to repeat history, tried to ruin his days again, he would be ready with his diamonds.

Even if it was because of Bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skeppy's getting a little bitter isn't he. Speaking from experience, Usually in a situation like this you go from confused, to sad, to devastated, to angry, to bitter, until you finally move on and stop caring. Or you stay bitter forever and hold a grudge. One of the two. I wonder what path Skeppy's gonna find himself on for this...
> 
> I'm working on an AU one-shot for skephalo as we speak. Completely different from what this is. So if I take awhile between this chapter and chapter 5, it's because of this other thing. Fear not
> 
> yknow, now that I think about it, this is sorta an inverse of the plot going on in Unspoken Rules. Skeppy fucked up in that fic, but here it's Bad who did the fucking up. Y'all should read Unspoken Rules if you haven't yet, by the way. Way better writing than I could ever bring ya. Amazing stuff
> 
> See yall next time -S


End file.
